Mid Term Art Intervention Project- Dianna Rich

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1c2mlZV9pRnLS92_GPLEiwgS9nht0V562KLA9Z9uqM54/edit?usp=drivesdk

I decided to do a stencil because I am a fan of graffiti and I like the way it can interrupt and command attention in a variety of spaces in such a quick way yet last so long and reach so many people. the stencil is about the inaction by the government to address the problem of mass and school shootings in America. It critiques the way our governments responds (or a lack thereof) to these issues with sympathy but no real change. A band aid is a representation of a surface level fix and is not an appropriate solution to a deeper wound. 

 One project that I found inspiring and symbolic is the "Resilience" project by "The Art Collective" which features resin butterflies, some up to five feet wide, which symbolize the fragility of life and are embedded with various objects found by the makers. The use of something so fragile and inconsequential to address such a violent issue creates an interesting juxtaposition. 

Another project I came across in my research was Stephanie Mercedes’ We Were Treated Like Numbers Rather Than Stars' where the artist uses bullet casings and 25 mm shells, the work transforms weapons into soundless bells that look like wind chimes. These are a homage to the victims and a statement on their lives being turned into merely a statistic. It is also an homage to trench art which is art made by soldiers from casings. 

https://thewalters.org/exhibitions/mercedes/

The project works as an intervention because it disrupts the space it is placed in and hopefully makes the viewer reconsider what is an appropriate response and think about what change the would like to see. It takes a typically acceptable expression of sympathy and shows the viewer how inadequate it is. 

https://giffords.org/action/resilience-butterfly-project/

 Bell Hooks says in "Understanding Patriarchy",  "Clearly we cannot dismantle a system as long as we engage in collective denial about its impact on our lives." I think this plays into the issues we have with gun violence and the inability to get in under control in our society because there is a patriarchal need for dominance and superiority that lends itself to the rationalization of people needing to own firearms. If we cannot admit to ourselves as a society what our reasoning is for needing this and how much more it hurts us than helps us, we cannot save ourselves or convince the government to save us.

Dr. Reilly says in "toward a Curatorial Activism", "What I do know is that, as we venture forward into this new century, it is imperative that art institutions examine not only their putative subjects, but their ideological biases as well. This will involve rethinking methodologies and iconographies for what they say, and do not say, about the constructions of race, gender, class and nation. In such cases, critical theory is not enough; we must re-examine cultural objects and social practices to understand the patterns of everyday life that shape the past and inevitably imprint the future."

I feel this resonates with the topic of my stencil because a lot of times when we hear the conversation about guns in America, people point to the right to bear arms but fail to realize that these provisions were put into place when the world was a different place and I do not think should be taken in the same exact context. We have to be willing to look at things through a modern lens when it comes to modern issues and be willing to examine and break patterns when necessary for the well being of people as a whole.